‘Just tragic, nonsense’: Kansas City sees 3 unrelated homicides within 6 hours Sunday
Detectives continued Sunday to investigate three separate killings that occurred within six hours of each other across Kansas City — homicides that police said they had no reason to think were related.
Officers responded to the first homicide just before 4 a.m. Sunday in the area of East 12th Street and Grand Boulevard near the Power & Light District. There, officers found one person inside a vehicle who had been fatally shot and another gunshot victim who was found sitting outside the vehicle.
The second victim, who was “awake and oriented,” was taken to a hospital, said Capt. Dave Jackson, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department. Detectives, he said, were investigating whether the shooting was connected to “another disturbance at a different location.”
Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté said he spoke to the victim’s family. He urged the community to find solutions to the violence.
“No one should have to feel this level of pain and grief over the senseless murder of a loved one,” Forté posted on Twitter from the crime scene, where people stood behind yellow, cautionary police tape.
About an hour later, officers were dispatched to a reported “cutting” at an apartment complex at 115 Northwest Harlem Road, just north of the Missouri River. A victim was taken to, and later died at, a hospital, police said.
Police believe two people were at an apartment when a third arrived and killed the victim. Witnesses at the scene told detectives they heard gunshots, but the victim’s cause of death is still being investigated, Jackson said.
Then just before 10 a.m., officers were called to an apartment building at Gillham Road and Armour Boulevard, where they found a man inside who had been shot. He died at the scene.
“This is just tragic, nonsense, crazy; I don’t know the right word,” Jackson told reporters. “But we have got to stop solving our conflicts with guns, weapons and violence.”
The number of homicides in such a short period of time takes a toll on detectives and those responding to the scenes, Jackson said. No traffic officers were stationed at the busy intersection near the apartment building because none were available, he noted.
“When there’s three within six hours, there’s not more people coming from some other agency,” Jackson said. “When we lose personnel, it takes a toll on the city.”
None of the victims had been publicly identified as of Sunday afternoon. No arrests had been announced.
Sunday’s third killing marked the 23rd this year in Kansas City. By this time in 2020, the city had recorded 27 homicides, according to data maintained by The Star. Last year ended with 182 homicides, the most in the city’s history in a single year.
Police asked anyone with information about the killings to call the department’s homicide unit at 816-234-5043. Anyone who wants to remain anonymous can call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
Gun violence will be the subject of a new, statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.
To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
